I firmly believe that many who labor in word and doctrine would accomplish a great deal more than they do if they attended more to personal work, visiting families, not simply to have an easy time and pleasant interview, but to relieve burdened souls by wisely, kindly, and earnestly preaching to them “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 20: 21.
There is no other way whereby we can gain an insight into the spiritual needs of our people as successfully as in private social intercourse. The Bible furnishes us any number of precedents in this kind of work. Paul labored “from house to house,” as well as “publicly.” Peter’s first effort among the Gentiles was in a private house, in the home of Cornelius. Acts 10. What rich fruit Christ’s private interview with Nicodemus bore! John 3. In the presence of the Jewish Sanhedrin the Saviour could not have instructed him as he did in that quiet talk; neither would Nicodemus have received his instruction. Paul applied the principle of true wisdom, when, speaking of one of his efforts with prominent men in Jerusalem, he said, “And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.” Gal. 2: 2.
Many a man in the large congregation, feels that he has his dignity to sustain, and so he will not yield as he would in a private interview; and once having taken his stand against the truth, he has not grace enough to renounce the position he had publicly taken.
The Great Teacher, in his personal labor with the woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well, spoke truths that lightened all Samaria, and in the Gospel of John have lightened the world through all the ages since. Philip, in his personal labor with the eunuch, caused him to say, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,” and to act on his belief, by being baptized. A Methodist presiding elder has well said, “We want ministers who will have their hand on their Bible in11the forenoons, and on their neighbors’ door-knobs in the afternoons.”
Now, in regard to the manner of visiting. By all means, do not antagonize. Remember, “He that winneth souls is wise.” Prov. 11: 30. If you are visiting those having a religious experience, let them know that you count them as brethren, that you are with them on the great truths of repentance, faith, conversion, the need and the efficacy of the Saviour’s work. Show how wonderfully interesting are the great lines of prophecy, and how they arm every one against infidelity. Isa. 41: 18-24; John 14: 29; Isa. 42: 9. Take their sympathies with you during the visit, and leave them with a warm clasp of the hand. I am deeply impressed with the importance of visiting every family willing to receive us. If we are faithful shepherds, the Lord will give us tact, and we shall find ourselves welcome when we come again.
Thoroughness should characterize our pastoral visits. Do not dispute. Even if remarks are made that you can not indorse, you do not have to contradict; be silent, or change the subject. Think, as the Saviour said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye can not hear them now.” Cultivate geniality. Study Phil. 4: 8, and you will find that sunshine wins. Read John 12: 32: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” If you lift Christ up, men will be attracted. If you do not have this result, ask yourself the question, Whom am I lifting up, Christ or self?
Many will not come out to hear us preach unless we visit them. Those who have the best success in keeping their congregations, have been good visitors. Again, it is a good way to have tracts with you, and you are fortunate if you can strike some subject of interest, and then leave some tract bearing on that subject. It will work like leaven, disarm prejudice, and create a desire to hear the living preacher. Many who have not the time to read a large book, will become deeply interested in a small tract. Let us bring these tracts to the front more, as we used to do in the early days of this cause. When visiting our own members, do not forget to encourage them to visit others. When Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16: 15), he addressed more lay members than apostles. God would have us to be social, both for our benefit and for the benefit of others. In doing this, we shall be watered ourselves while watering others, and shall be better prepared to sympathize with, and understandingly pray for, those who are compassed by weakness and surrounded by temptation.
The minister should not spend too much time in his study. It is a good place for a fitting up, but men and women are the material that God sends him to work with. Many of them are governed by worldly principles, and are perishing without the light of the everlasting gospel. Their darkness appeals to us. God has sent us out, saying, “Ye are the light of the world.” “Freely ye have received, freely give.”
Again we say, cultivate geniality. Prove to them that you are really interested in their welfare. Have a kind word for the children. They like to be noticed, and in doing so you are making your own life lovely. God does not want us to hold ourselves aloof from the people. Not a hermit is found in heaven. Long ago God saw that it was not good for man to be alone. The angels form an innumerable company, and the promise is found in Ps. 68: 6, “God setteth the solitary in families.” All the inhabitants of heaven are social beings, giving as well as receiving, each one contributing to the happiness of the rest. Among the redeemed, as well, the same conditions exist. A great multitude that no man could number stand before the throne of God, and they are rejoicing together. So, on the earth, God calls us to work for one another; and the ambassador for Christ, when he goes out with a heart full of love for others, will find that life is rich in doing his Master’s work.
Chicago, Ill.
Prepare for Comfort at Our Camp-Meetings
By William Covert
WILLIAM COVERT
OUR camp-meetings are important auxiliaries connected with the work of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, and all who attend these convocations should regard themselves as tributaries to their success. In getting ready for the camp-meeting there are essential considerations that demand proper attention. The tent and its equipments, the food supplies and their preparation, the clothing to be worn and the care that should be given to it, articles to take, and things that should not go—all may be studied with profit.
Our camp-meetings usually continue from ten days to two weeks, a period of sufficient length to subject campers to a variety of conditions in the matter of weather and health; be sure, therefore, to secure a good and spacious tent for the occasion. Either rent or buy one that will keep out the rain and afford ample room for the occupants. In the majority of cases it is best to floor the tent, yet if the ground is dry and covered with grass, a tent may be made comfortable without a floor of boards, but even then rugs are necessary to guard against colds and other discomforts. All tent floors should be laid on some kind of joists, so as to admit the air beneath.
Take your rubbers, your wraps, and an abundant supply of bedclothes, because the chances are that all these will be needed at times during your stay in the camp. Provide well for rest, so that when the time comes for retiring, you may lie down on a bed with bedstead, mattress, and springs arranged as home-like as possible. Sufficient space for two beds or four cots can be found in a twelve-by-fourteen-foot tent. Sleeping apartments should be separated from each other, and also from the sitting apartment of the tent by curtains or screens.
All details in regard to convenience, comfort, good taste, and propriety should receive attention, in order that our camp-meetings may prove to be occasions of helpfulness and good schooling to us. While these gatherings are not the places to display gaudy apparel, all should try to wear substantial clothing which has been made up in good form. The clothing should be well kept. In fact, it should be religiously clean. Anciently, when the Lord advised his people regarding their sanctification and readiness to meet him, he said, “Sanctify them to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes.” Ex. 19: 10, 14.
Though we do not go to our meetings in order to feast, yet we must eat food of good quality that has been properly cooked, else we can not get the benefit from these occasions that the Lord desires us to receive. We should eat for strength, clearness of mind, and sweetness of disposition. If the camp boarding tent furnishes such food, it is better to patronize it than to take the time and be at the trouble of providing meals in the family tents. However, this question should be left for the various families and companies attending the meetings to settle for themselves. The details of preparation are many, and of course these will need to be considered by the many who prepare to go. It should therefore be understood that some careful forethought is necessary if only sweet memories of the camp-meeting are to abide in the mind.
Take to the camp Bibles, hymn-books, Sabbath-school helps, and such other books as may be needed for reference while there. Provide the camp home with chairs, tables, rugs, lamps, cups, pails, basins, toilet supplies, pins, needles, thread, scissors, mirrors, and various other articles that persons and conditions may demand.
Take as many members of the family and as many friends and neighbors as may be induced to go. But worldly cares, perplexities, criticisms, unbelief, hardness of heart, and such like have no right to a place where God's people convene.
Attend these meetings with courage in the heart, and with confidence in the third angel's message. Before going decide to be present at as many services as possible, and to have good words for every good thing. Be assured that those who do these things will become fruitful in good works, and in due time have a home in the kingdom of God.
Teaching Children About Jesus
“Would you like to be a judge?” said a gentleman one day to a little boy. The child, after thinking a minute, replied, “I think I should like better still to teach children about Jesus’ dying to save them. That would make them love and obey him; and, if they loved and obeyed him, they would not need a judge.”
“Close at Hand”
By Susan Coolidge
The way is long, and the day is hard;
We are tired of the march, and of keeping guard;
Tired of the sense of a fight to be won;
Of days to live through, and work to be done;
Tired of ourselves, and of being alone.
And all the while, did we only see,
We walk in the Lord’s own company;
We fight, but ’tis he who nerves our arm;
He turns the arrow that else might harm;
And out of the storm he brings a calm.
The work which we count so hard to do,
He makes so easy; for he works, too;
The days that are long to live are his—
A bit of his bright eternities;
And close to our needs his helping is.
O, eyes that were veiled and blinded quite,
That caught no glimpse of the guiding light!
O, dull, deaf ears, that could never hear
The heavenly garment trailing near!
O, faithless heart, which dared to fear!
— Susan Coolidge.
Modern Education and Some of Its Perils
By C. A. Blanchard
EDUCATION is the great interest and duty of every age. Men become what they are chiefly by reason of the education which they receive. A babe born in the home of a savage, but reared in the home of a Christian, will usually be civilized, and probably be a child of God. A babe born in a Christian home, and reared in the home of a savage, will certainly be a savage, and if ever civilized or Christianized, will become so by the action of educating forces.
Poland was once almost entirely Protestant. The Jesuits obtained possession of the schools. They became managers of the education of the Polish youth. The result was that the Protestant movement was at first checked, and then destroyed, and that for two hundred years Poland has been as Catholic a country as there is in the world.
Dangers not All Passed
There are some things which may be done and finished, but education will never be done and finished until the last child is born and reared. The world must be made new with every generation, and as long as human life may be made or marred, there will be a best way to train the young, and there will be a danger that society will fail of finding or walking in this best way. The question suggested to me is this: “What are the perils of modern education?” All will expect me to answer, “Commercialism.” There is no doubt that this is one of our great dangers. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. It will profit a man nothing, should he gain the whole world, or any portion of it, if he lose his own soul. Yet, education in our time is very largely devoted to the subject of money making. Men are fairly crazed. The old wish to get it to keep; the young wish to get it to spend.
Now, there is no question that, so long as we are in this world, we shall need things. It is equally certain that if we “seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness,” we shall get them. For this we have the word of God. But for the schools of a great nation, from the primary grades to the State universities, to be teaching twenty millions of children, young men and women, five days in the week through ten or fifteen years, that the great end of life is to get money, that for this they should study and plan and work, is to corrupt the very brain and heart of the nation.
The rage for pleasure in our day takes on a peculiar and a peculiarly dangerous character. Boys and girls of fifty and one hundred years ago were trained to labor. From the time when they could go about, they had a share, and an honorable share, in the work of the homes where they were reared. The girls swept, and dusted, washed, wiped, ironed, and mended; the boys sawed, split, carried in, carried out, harnessed horses, ran errands, cleaned sidewalks, and became valuable members of the community. When work was done, there were sports, simple, inexpensive, healthful, helpful. One need not stop to ask the reason for the change; but notice how tremendous the change is! Hundreds of thousands of girls are raised to young womanhood who have never done a useful thing in their lives. Mothers and servants have waited on them, dressed them, fed them, and, in addition, have provided them with money that they might have “fun,” as they call it. And these idle, worthless girls are matched to equally idle, worthless, and more dangerous boys and young men—lads who have never earned a day’s food, who are clothed, fed, housed, cared for, and who then must be furnished with money for “fun,” and this not the simple, inexpensive, healthful, helpful sport of their fathers and grandfathers, but expensive, morally dangerous, physically dangerous, injurious amusements, the amusements which take boys who are not qualified to take care of themselves, on long journeys away from home, subject them to the overstrain of exciting contest, and, above all, to the temptation to lie and cheat in order to win.
The Fraternity System
No intelligent person who studies our educational system at the present time can doubt that the fraternity movement is another of the perils of modern education. Boys like to be men. They like to become men as quickly as possible; and, unfortunately, it seems more natural for them to imitate the defects and vices than the sterling qualities of those whom they admire. Among the illustrations of this general truth is the rage for secret organization which has recently taken possession of our country from ocean to ocean. Boards of education in cities have been compelled to take action. Superintendents of schools and principals of high schools, as well as high school teachers, almost without exception declare that these fraternities are seriously injuring the young people of the schools where they are found.
In multitudes of our colleges secret societies are permitted to do, without let or hindrance, what the boards of education and the faculties of high schools are seeking to prevent. The same snobbery, the same petty persecutions, the same tendencies toward smoking, drinking, gambling, and licentiousness, which have caused the high schools to reject the fraternity, are clearly evidenced in the fraternity life of the colleges. Yet the governing boards of the latter seem to be ignorant, unable or unwilling to do the thing which the situation requires.
Of course, some fraternities are worse than others, and the same fraternity in one college may be more objectionable than it is in another. But, as Dr. Crosby, chancellor of New York University, said, “Out of darkness dark deeds grow.” Wendell Phillips said, “Secret societies are needful for no good purpose, and may be used for any bad purpose whatever.” Washington, in his farewell address, cautioned the American nation against “self-constituted societies, which interfere with the general administration,” and are therefore hindrances both to those who participate in them and to others.
The number of deaths which have already been caused by these fraternities no one but God knows. Three men, at least, have been killed in initiation at Cornell University; one was brought to the very gates of death at Harvard; one at least has been killed at Yale within the last few years. Broken legs and arms, bruises and injuries to the brain, are not catalogued. Parents send a boy away to college, healthy, happy, ambitious, strong. They receive him back sometimes a mental wreck, sometimes a physical wreck, sometimes a corpse. It is strange that such an institution should be tolerated for an hour.
The Use of Tobacco and Liquor
Another of the perils of modern education is in the temptation to the use of narcotics and alcoholic stimulants. Medical science has definitely pronounced upon both these poisons. It has been proved that neither of them13is consistent with the highest physical well-being of men. If the use of tobacco and alcohol injures the bodies of men, of course the intellectual and moral natures must also suffer. That they do, no one can doubt, and that the injury is the greater when the use of alcoholic and narcotic stimulants is begun in youth, is also unquestionable.
Associated with the craze for sport and the use of stimulants are the awful vices of gambling and licentiousness. The latter is undoubtedly the most widespread evil of our time, and is one of the greatest of all perils to which the young people of our schools are exposed. Gambling among students is often begun by betting on the contests in which the college or university is engaged. When once the appetite for the hazard of cards, dice, or contests is established, the victim is ruined, unless God shall interfere. The gambler will sacrifice reputation, property, the interests of his family, everything, to gratify his passion.
Licentiousness is stimulated by the dances which are held by the fraternities, and the custom of wine drinking, joined with the dancing, makes the ruin of thousands sure. It is not fashionable in these times even to speak of these evils, far less to provide efficiently against them. It is easier to let the young people drift, to let those who are to be destroyed be destroyed, and to teach the rest. But this is not the method of Jesus Christ, and ought not to be the method of a school which bears his name.
A Christian college should, by precept and by the example of its professors and teachers, show the young men and women that the use of tobacco and intoxicating liquors is unnecessary and injurious. I once saw on the bulletin-board of a university, side by side, the announcement of a missionary meeting, the notice of a dance given by one of the classes, and the notice of a smoker given by the faculty. Such a combination unsettles all moral ideas, and leaves the pupil helpless so far as the guidance of his institution is concerned.
Jesus Is the Only Cure
We may sum up the whole matter in a few words. To “fear God and keep his commandments” is the “whole duty of man.” No man has ever done this or ever will do it, except as he is saved and kept by Jesus Christ. The college, therefore, should conduct men to him. This should be the thing for which it labors, teaches, prays, and works. The Christian men and women should sustain the institutions which accept this responsibility. They should not patronize with their money—most of all, they should not patronize with their sons and daughters—the institutions which are not willing to accept such responsibility. It is the duty of the Christian school to sustain the Christian home. Schools which are not willing to do this ought not to be called Christian, and Christian people should leave them to be sustained, both as to patronage and gifts, by those who do not care for the souls of men.—C. A. Blanchard, President of Wheaton College.
The Need of Homes
By Mrs. N. H. Richmond
MRS. N. H. RICHMOND
At the present time, when sin and lawlessness of every kind are having their way, and when we see some one's girls and boys going down to the very depths of sin on every side, what are we as Christians to do? That the evil will not be stopped is very evident, for evil men and seducers are to wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Tim. 3:13) till the end comes.
We see on every hand girls—somebody's splendid girls—entering the whirlpool of sin, and being dragged to the very bottom of the pit, then in their despair crying out, “Too late, too late!” All too often some mother comes to me, her heart filled with sorrow and despair, saying, “What can I do for my girl? She is a good girl, but she is in trouble, and where can I take her so that when she gets over this, she will not be likely to do the same thing again?”
O, the bitter tears that are shed, and the aching hearts there are all around us! Jesus said he came to bind up the broken-hearted and break the bands of wickedness and let the oppressed go free.
I often wonder, as I listen to the tales of woe and see the bitter tears flow, how Jesus must feel when he sees so few who are willing to engage in a work for girls. There should be Homes for girls everywhere all over the world, where they can go when they have taken the first step downward, where they can receive a training, and be taught the fundamental principles of right-doing, and how to work. It is surprising how few girls who have good mothers are taught by those mothers how to work. Work was given as a blessing to man, and if girls were taught how to do housework of all kinds, instead of sitting around doing nothing, what a blessing it would be to both mother and daughters! And many times it would keep the girls from going wrong!
Homes of this kind on a small scale are needed in many places, with a school, where those who have charge of the Homes and the girls are one family, with a real home life, where the family altar is erected, and all take a part in singing praises to God,—where love for souls rules the Home. A farm of a few acres is needed, with some kinds of industries, so that in a short time the girls will learn how to do many things, and will be self-supporting. Such Homes, not institutions, would be the means of saving many, yes, hundreds of girls from going to the very depths of sin. The family plan is God's plan, and coming in close touch with people is the best way to reach the heart. “Give me thine heart,” says the Lord.
There is a great work to be done. Who will take part in it and help with both heart and means to establish such places, not only for girls, but for boys also? As I see the scores and hundreds of boys going down, how my heart cries out, and I long to see God's people aroused to this work. It is part of the gospel message for this time, and must be done. May God impress it on the hearts of the Christian people everywhere.
Christ's words were, “The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom before you.” Take heed to thyself lest at any time thine own heart be not right. May you who read this realize that your girl, your boy, is no more safe than some one's else boy and girl; for Satan has come down with great wrath, knowing his time is short. Rev. 12:12.
Hinsdale, Ill.
Canteen Lobby’s Chief Excuse Gone
THERE is mourning in Washington, not at the Capitol, not at the White House, but in the rooms of the liquor lobby, where they have been “setting the pins” so industriously for the repeal of the anti-canteen law. It is on the program to carry this nullifying legislation at the next session of Congress. Preparatory for this, the liquor lobby has been flooding the country with literature describing the utter failure of the present law to promote sobriety in the army. Notwithstanding the published reports of the judge advocate general, showing a remarkable decrease in the number of arrests and courts-martial since the anti-canteen law went into effect, the charge is made repeatedly that the army has become demoralized since the rank and file have been denied their daily grog. It has not been difficult to get testimonials to this effect from drinking officers, but the counter-opinion from the army’s best generals ought to outweigh the testimony of a thousand majors and lieutenants.
The liquor interests wail bitterly because the poor soldier is subjected to the awful temptations of low groggeries outside the military posts. The most offensive dives of this character have clustered around Fort Sheridan, the large military post just outside of Chicago. The evils there were all that certain newspaper correspondents, who appeared to be in the employ of the liquor trade, have pictured them. These dens at Highwood have furnished more than one specious argument for the restoration of the canteen. Instead of this, however, the Law and Order League of Lake County, in which Highwood is situated, went to the State Capitol and asked for a law prohibiting liquor selling within one and one-eighth miles of any military or naval post. Who indorsed their petition but the secretary of war himself! With this powerful influence abetting, the legislature of Illinois unanimously passed a law closing Highwood dives. What has been done in Illinois can be done in any and every State of the Union; and if it were done, there would be no demand in respectable quarters for the restoration of the canteen by Congress next winter.—Home Herald.
The Somabula Mission
By George A. Irwin
G. A. IRWIN
IN the month of August, 1902, Brother and Sister Armitage arrived on the ground and began work to open up what is now known as the Somabula Mission. The first buildings erected were at a point about eight miles from the present location. After remaining there for a time, and becoming better acquainted with the country, it was deemed advisable to move to their present location, where new huts, a dwelling-house, a schoolhouse, and other necessary buildings have been erected.
When Brother Armitage left the Solusi Mission, his whole outfit consisted of ten young oxen, and an old wagon that had been cast aside as worthless. Being a wagon maker, he fixed up this old wagon so that it carried himself and family, with their few household goods and scanty store of provisions, in safety a distance of over one hundred and fifty miles. Eight natives accompanied him on the journey, most of whom were mere children.
With practically nothing to begin with, it is not strange that they had a hard experience for a time to make a living, and at the same time go on with their buildings, simple and comparatively inexpensive though they were. To add to their perplexities, their oxen died with a cattle disease which went through the country. In order to go on with his work, Brother Armitage paid out £180 of his own money for two mules, but it was not long until these sickened and died, and they were again left without stock of any kind.
Their extremity, however, proved the Lord's opportunity to help, and he did it in a peculiar manner. A number of transporters were trekking through the country at a considerable distance from his place, and one night after they had outspanned and camped for the night, a couple of roving lions stampeded their oxen, and chased them all night and part of the next day, leaving them just before they got to Brother Armitage's place. Seeing they were lost and frightened, he shut them up in his kraal. The next day the owners came in search of their oxen, having tracked them within a few miles of the place. They were delighted to find their oxen all safe. Brother Armitage tried to buy one or two yoke from them; they said they were under a large contract for the delivery of goods, and could not spare a single ox, but that as soon as they got home, they would send him ten or fifteen cows, and he could have the use of them until he could make more satisfactory arrangements.
The next time the Lord used a mad dog to send money to the mission. The scare created by this one dog caused the issuing of a very imperative order that all dogs not muzzled inside of three days would be killed by the police. The order coming so suddenly, the few muzzles on hand in the town were at once taken by the residents, and the poor natives were left with seemingly certain death for their dogs. Knowing that Brother Armitage was something of a blacksmith, the chiefs came to him and besought him to make muzzles for them, offering him two shillings sixpence apiece for each muzzle, the same price they sold for in the stores. They brought him one for a pattern, and he went to work, and worked day and night until the demand was supplied. When he came to reckon up, he found the Lord had helped the struggling mission with nearly £30, while at the same time doing the natives a great favor in making it possible for them to save their dogs, which they prize very highly.
I speak of these incidents to show that those who engage in mission work for the natives in Africa must be persons who will not fail nor faint at difficulties, but industrious, practical people, who can and will turn to account every opportunity to advance the work.
The Somabula Mission derives its name from a forest not far distant bearing this name. Gwelo, the nearest point on the Beira and Mashonaland Railway, and the place where they sell the principal part of their produce and purchase their supplies, is twenty-one miles away. It requires three full days to make the return trip with their team composed of sixteen donkeys. The Shamrock Gold Mine, which furnishes a market for most of the butter and eggs produced at the mission, is only seven miles away.
The Somabula Mission has no land of its own, but Brother Armitage leases from the government at two shillings an acre per annum all the land he wishes to cultivate. He has at present one hundred acres under cultivation — forty-five acres in mealies, and the remainder in Kafir corn, sweet potatoes, and such other vegetables as are common to the country. They have eighty banana plants, sixty-five grape-vines, six peach-trees, two orange-trees, and five fig-trees. The mission buildings consist of a double dwelling-house, each part being sixteen by forty feet, and divided into three rooms. The two houses stand nine feet apart the long way, and are connected by a covered house, and joined to it by a covered passage. Another building is twenty-four by forty feet, which is used as a dining-room, schoolroom, and meeting place on the Sabbath. The other buildings consist of a storeroom sixteen by twenty-four feet, a wagon shed of the same dimensions, a creamery ten by ten feet, a cook house twelve by twelve feet, and eight square huts twelve by twelve feet and six feet high, for the use of the students. All these buildings are made of poles, and are plastered with mortar made from earth obtained from ant-hills, and are roofed with long grass. Aided by the steep pitch given the roof, these grass houses afford good protection from the rain, and the roofs, if kept free from white ants, will last from two to four years. There are at present twenty-five boys and fourteen girls at the home, and they have an average outside attendance of ten, making a school of about fifty in number.
In the shape of property, the mission has a new wagon furnished by the conference, and a double breaking plow, seventeen donkeys, and fifty cattle.
During the greater portion of the time since the establishment of this mission Brother and Sister Armitage have been the only teachers. Of those who have assisted them at intervals, Mrs. W. S. Hyatt was the first. She remained about six months. During Brother Armitage's absence at the Cape to recuperate from fever and malaria, Brother Albert White and wife spent nearly one year at the mission. A few months prior to the convening of the late union conference at Cape Town, Brother Walston and Sister Edie were sent to the mission to have charge during the absence of Brother and Sister Armitage at the conference. Sister Armitage being unable to return on account of the health of her little girl, and expecting that Brother Walston would soon return to the Cape, it was recommended that Brother and Sister Rogers spend a few weeks at this mission, assisting in the teaching, while waiting for the fever season to pass so they could go on to Nyassaland. Brother and Sister Rogers were there during my stay at the mission, and were taking entire charge of the school, thus relieving Brother Armitage to superintend the gathering of the crops and breaking up of fresh land for use next season. The one great need of this mission, as well as all the others I have visited, is a man and his wife to take charge of the school work, and be in training in a general way to stand at the head of the work while the superintendent is away looking up new openings for missions or making plans for the boys to begin work. Just before leaving the mission, some of the older boys came to me and made a pathetic appeal that I would send them more help, so that some one could go with them, and assist them in starting work among their own people.
On Thursday morning, March 28, Brother Armitage and I left the mission for Gwelo, with what they call the “Somabula Express,” which in this instance consisted of the old wagon formerly referred to, drawn by twelve oxen. Brother and Sister Rogers and Sister Edie accompanied us for about a mile, when the team was stopped, and Brother Rogers took a snap-shot of the whole15company before they got down from the wagon to say good-by. About eight miles from this place we met the boys with the donkey team and new wagon, returning from Gwelo, where they had gone two days before to take Elder Hyatt to the train. The driver of the donkey team was lying under the wagon sick with the fever; so we changed teams and drivers, letting the sick man and his boys return to the mission with the ox team, while we proceeded on our way with the new team composed of sixteen donkeys. The donkey is, no doubt, a valuable animal in hot countries like Africa, but when it comes to a matter of speed, he is certainly a failure. By a constant use of the whip, and being encouraged or frightened by very frequent yells from the drivers, they make about two miles an hour while going; but it is necessary to stop frequently and outspan to let them feed. The road being good, and the night beautiful and light from a full moon, we came in sight of Gwelo about ten o'clock. At this point the drivers turned aside a little distance from the main road, stopped the team, and tied the leaders to a tree, and put up for the night, Brother Armitage and I sleeping in the wagon on a bed made and carried for that purpose, while the boys slept beside the wagon on a piece of canvas.
This has been a common and almost weekly occurrence with those having charge of our missions. Fortunately for me, the instance here recorded was very favorable because of the nice weather, but our missionaries have felt themselves compelled to go, rain or shine, good or bad roads, and many times they have been drenched to the skin, and compelled to sleep in their wet clothing.
The query may arise in some minds. Why go so far back from the railway, and why not keep horses or mules so they can make quicker trips? I answer, first, in establishing missions for native people, we must go where the natives are. As civilization advances, and railroads are built through the country, the natives move farther back, and hence the missionary must go back. As to the use of horses and mules, it has been thoroughly demonstrated that horses can not stand hard work in such a climate, and mules, until they are “salted” as they call acclimatization, are no better; and in the process of acclimatization, only one out of five lives. This makes both horses and mules unreliable, and very expensive. While donkeys are slow, they are immune to the diseases that destroy other domestic animals.